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To lose weight, live longer and improve your overall health, which matters more — diet or
exercise? Three experts weigh in.

Losing weight

Weight loss is generally

80 percent diet and 20 percent exercise, said Gene Garnes, the fitness manager at Ignite Health
& Fitness in Columbus. People see the biggest short-term results when they cut calories and eat
healthfully, and it’s much easier to cut calories than to burn them off.

“You can’t out-exercise bad nutrition,” Garnes said.

For example, if you eat a McDonald’s Big Mac, which is 550 calories, you need to run more than 5
miles to “undo” it.

So, what should you eat?

Low-carb diets are popular because they offer fast results, but they can be difficult to
sustain, said Dr. Chad Braun, a primary-care physician at Mount Carmel St. Ann’s Family Medical
Center who specializes in diet and exercise.

Braun recommends a more-balanced plan that focuses on fruits and vegetables, lean proteins and
whole-grain carbohydrates.

“The most-effective diet is going to be one that’s easy to stick with over a long period of
time,” he said. “There are a lot of fad diets out there ... but those aren’t going to be the most
sustainable.”

And don’t cut calories to fewer than 1,200 per day, said Anna Beery, a dietitian at Ohio State
University’s Wexner Medical Center. That causes your metabolism to slow, and your body will hold
onto calories rather than burn them.

For a healthy daily calorie count, consume about 10 calories per pound of body weight, Beery
said, so a 150-pound person should shoot for 1,500 calories a day.

Losing inches

Without exercise, Garnes said, only part of your weight loss is from fat. You’re also losing
muscle and bone density.

Exercise builds muscle, which weighs more than fat by volume but takes up less space, Garnes
said. So the number on the scale might not be as impressive, especially if you have only a little
weight to lose, but you’ll look smaller.

“One pound of muscle is like the size of a tangerine, and one pound of fat is like the size of a
grapefruit,” he said. “We want to put the tangerine on your body to take the grapefruit off.”

The American Heart Association recommends at least 30 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic
activity five days a week.

“It seems like a lot, especially if you’re starting from none,” Braun said. “Starting with
anything is something. ... Just about anyone can start a walking program.”

Like calories, muscle helps regulate your metabolism. The more muscle on your body, the faster
your metabolism will be and the more calories you’ll burn.

Beery suggests starting with small, attainable goals, such as cutting out sugary beverages.

Even if middle-age or older people have never exercised, they can still benefit from beginning
now, she said.

A 2007 study funded by the National Institutes of Health looked at the mortality rate of 2,600
men and women age 60 or older. Over a 12-year period, those in the least-fit group had a death rate
four times higher than the people in the fittest group.

“If you want to live a long life, change diet and exercise from something that you do for two,
four or six months to something you do for the rest of your life,” Braun said.